What's your SD Viewing Preference?

[Mr Tony]

stretched....the HDTV makes it kinda like partial zoom. Pic looks good and when I watch a SD hockey game they dont look like fat midgets

 

[long_time_DNC]

TNT does the fisheye lens-type stretch on some stuff. I don't like it because it makes me dizzy on quick pans. My old DLP set did that in "Progressive Wide" mode. I never used that mode for that reason...

 

[Mike_H]

Stretched puts all the people out of proportion. Not quite sure how people can be satisfied with that. It's so obvious when the channels do it on their own when upconverting things on their hd channels

Zoomed cuts things off.

I just leave it alone and it looks fine. I find it funny how some people feel like they don't get their money's worth from a TV unless every square mm is covered with picture, regardless of what forcing that causes the image to look like.

 

[reddice]

I used to keep the 4:3 with black matting on my first HDTV.

Years later the black matting BURNED into the TV, distorting the color on full 19:6 HD features.

My new HDTVs are either partial or full zoom, but occasionally I leave the OAR which I prefer.

Not to be mean but that is your fault for buying a plasma TV. Plasmas are always junk and only uneducated TV people buy them. They have screen burn issues, use a lot of electricity and limited life spans since they rely on gas. When the gas runs out all you can do is throw away the TV.

 

[Pepper]

OAR only for me.

 

[shimma]

Reddice, your comment is pathetically misinformed. I have a fantastic Panasonic plasma and am by no means uneducated.

I watch virtually no SD.

 

[long_time_DNC]

100,000 half-life for my plasma? I understand quite thoroughly how they work and researched my purchase and comparison researched extensively. I'm hardly "uneducated", Reddice.

 

[Carl B]

I chose Normal as my preference and never use Stretch or Zoom as the former distorts the content and the latter distorts the PQ. When we have a high quality SD show (e.g., premium movie channels) that isn't all facial close-ups, and my better half is in control, we sometimes use Partial Zoom as it doesn't distort the content and has a minimal affect on good SD PQ.

 

[whatchel1]

Old info

Not to be mean but that is your fault for buying a plasma TV. Plasmas are always junk and only uneducated TV people buy them. They have screen burn issues, use a lot of electricity and limited life spans since they rely on gas. When the gas runs out all you can do is throw away the TV.

You need to start reading new info about plasma's. They now have circuitry that keeps them from having the burn in problem. Also no LCD can reproduce blacks as well as a plasma.

 

[crazypat]

I dont watch any SD channels anymore or SD programs for that matter.

I second your opinion. I can't stand watching SD anymore.

 

[Jim5506]

HD Absolute - I don't watch SD anymore!

 

[kovach]

I hate stretching everything out making everyone look fat. I also heard the black-bar is harder on the screen than greybar, so I use the latter.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I like it to fill the screen. But not over fill it.

 

[Cyclone]

I had used Normal for the first year of my Plasma. Then one day ther was a full screen of blue sky and sure enough the pillar areas where much brighter than the rest of the screen. I knew instantly that burn in had begun.

From then on I went with stretched. Sure it looks ugly at first, but somehow my brain quickly acclimated to it and I really don't notice the difference.

I will say that I pretty much watch only HD, so that helps. Its funny because one of my SD only hold outs has been watching the F1 races. So sure enough with Speed being stretched, the cars always look much wider. Then when they have the few races on Fox which is 16:9, the cars aren't stretched and they just look odd to me after seeing them stretched for so many hours before.

 

[bidger`]

Normal.

 

[griz_fan]

Not to be mean but that is your fault for buying a plasma TV. Plasmas are always junk and only uneducated TV people buy them. They have screen burn issues, use a lot of electricity and limited life spans since they rely on gas. When the gas runs out all you can do is throw away the TV.

Not to be mean, but you're way off base here (often referred to as being "full of crap" in some circles). The "uneducated TV people" comment in particular shows a profound level of ignorance.

Now, if you want the best picture quality possible, plasma is the way to go. As I'm sure others will point out, life span, gas issues, burn in, etc... are problems that were solved a LONG time ago. I have a DLP and a plasma, both are great TVs. If money were no object, my house would be full of Pioneer Kuro Plasma TVs. I would just make sure to properly calibrate them, first. Burn in on a properly calibrated plasma is very rare.

Having said that, I still watch a decent amount of SD, so I leave it in OAR.

 

[dlsnyder]

I will do normal (pillar box) or stretch depending on the show. Letterbox SD shows on an HD channel, like Doctor Who, I will zoom in.

My wife HATES any kind of bars on the screen. Not only will she stretch SD channels, she prefers SD channels over HD so that she doesn't have to mess with the settings. We just got a 612 for the HD set in the bedroom, which is where she does most of her TV watching. All of the channels on her favorites list are the SD versions, except for the movie channels. Since the movie channels are usually zoomed in to fill the 16x9 screen that works OK for her. She even prefers to buy fullscreen DVDs so she won't see the black bars on OAR widscreen movies.

 

[Carl B]

I will do normal (pillar box) or stretch depending on the show. Letterbox SD shows on an HD channel, like Doctor Who, I will zoom in.

My wife HATES any kind of bars on the screen. Not only will she stretch SD channels, she prefers SD channels over HD so that she doesn't have to mess with the settings. We just got a 612 for the HD set in the bedroom, which is where she does most of her TV watching. All of the channels on her favorites list are the SD versions, except for the movie channels. Since the movie channels are usually zoomed in to fill the 16x9 screen that works OK for her. She even prefers to buy fullscreen DVDs so she won't see the black bars on OAR widscreen movies.

Women! I've had to slowly train my wife to appreciate HD and minimize the use of Partial Zoom. She still hates widescreen movies that display in OAR with black bars top and bottom and I have to admit, I'm growing less tolerate of them myself. But, since doing anything to them screws up the upscaled PQ, we still watch them that way.

I think that Hollywood will recognize shortly the potential demand for widescreen movies that fill a 16x9 screen and will reissue many DVDs in "full wide screen" versions. DVD sales are slacking off, so I think they would be willing to sell whatever they think the public will buy. OAR for widescreen movies might be fine for purists, but after spending a small fortune for a large, wide screen, HDTV, who wants to waste 20% of the screen on black bars. I really appreciate the fact that Starz and Cinemax don't do very much OAR stuff on their HD channels.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Nope, I'm restraining myself. I'm not going to tout the advantages of OAR again. I'm going to just keep my yap shut this time and not take the topic down a rabbit-trail.

 

[Derwin0]

Zoomed if letterboxed, stretched if not.